They tell me Martin dreamed,

But I wonder was he ever able to sleep between his leaps to the mountaintop?

Was he ever able to rest in his quest for freedom?

And did the world see his dream as more than jest,

 Or was fear forced to hide behind stride?

Oh my,

Did he ever rest his feet from the Selma streets,

As ignorant obscenities were spewed like a bad song on repeat.

Did he ever feel like he was drowning with no repair for the leak?

I wonder if Martin knew that the march would not stop with him,

And that death would not even be an end.

That his dream was not in vain.

That his dream would live on.

Pulsing through our veins.

Pushing through our pain.

With no shame of who we are.

We are the bold, the black, the brave, and the beautiful.

I pray to God too that my children are judged by the character of their hearts,

And not set a part by pigmentation.

Subject to no segregation,

Only elevation, to the highest level of themselves.

To be doctors or lawyers.

To love and be loved.

To dream and to achieve.

To hope and give hope.

So I march For the boys catching bullets that should be catching baseballs.

I march,

For my ancestors who were made into ornaments on southern trees.

Billie was right, what strange fruit.

I march, for those who carried the weight of both their crosses and mine.

I march for those who accepted death so that I may receive life.

I march for the girls unafraid to wear their natural hair,

And understand that all hair is good hair.

I march for he girls who have no fear in owning their beauty,

And those who are ashamed.

I march for those who are afraid to claim their blackness,

And I pray they find light where man has only suggested darkness should be.

I march for those beaten for dreaming.

I march for my children and my children’s children.

Your children too!

I march for you.

I march for myself.

And in a world that says my black is dark,

My black is dangerous—

Gracefully, I remind them that my black is the darkness that makes the stars shine in the night,

And makes the light beautiful.